Changing someone’s life. A holiday story.

It’s Christmas time so I thought I’d go a little mushy.

In pharma we deal with changing people’s lives, hopefully for the better, every day.

But it’s a term that’s become so over-used that it has somewhat lost its meaning. Indeed my last agency had ‘lifechanging’ as its client-facing tagline. It was arguably true, no more or less than the average pharma agency that deals with rare diseases and chronic ones day in day out, but true all the same.

But have you ever changed someone’s life? the thing is, its impossible to tell straight away.

You may have said something off hand yet profound to someone years ago, a little advice, or an opinion, without them (or you) even knowing the value of those few words, then you went home and thought nothing more of it.

It can take a few years to rebound back to you. It’s like sending off good vibes into the ether and one day it drops back into your life, like a warm hug from your past.

Time travelling

This time of year there’s a lot of agency reunions happening, at least in my calendar. As you progress through your career if you are lucky you will find yourself going back and having a few drinks with colleagues you used to spend every day with, a lot of weekends in the office with, and a few boozy nights with, sometimes for years on end. And then you leave that job and those numbers of friends might suddenly dwindle to one or two of your best pals and those drinks become more infrequent

But like a latter day Marty McFly each reunion transports you back into a previous time-zone, you resurrect a little of the person you once were, because everyone around you remembers you that way. It’s somewhat sentimental in many ways, like an immersive VR experience akin to skimming through an old photo album.

The longer time span between agency and reunion means at one you can be the young art director again and enjoy seeing your older (now retired) bosses who ask ‘how you are getting on these days‘ like a kindly Uncle or Aunt. Or you can be the kindly uncle yourself – if it’s literally an agency you just left!

A forgotten conversation

At one recent party, in an upstairs room at a ‘boozer’ just north of London’s Soho and south of Charlottes Street (how more on-the-nose for an advertising reunion could a pub be?) I was talking to a TV producer friend of mine who I’d regrettably only seen sparingly over the last 15-20 years but who once upon a time I had spent many shoots with, in foreign lands and weird locations and great hotels.

One of the nicest things about reunions or indeed old friendships, is that you start off where you left off, like no time has passed at all. I never cease to be gladdened by this human ability.

When I was working with this particular lady she was often pregnant (or seemed to be anyway!) and yet undiminished in her work ethic and professionalism. She was ambitious and was destined for great things, as it so it proved to be. Nothing wrong with that.

Over the chatter and laughter she told me that I had had a profound effect on her, with a seemingly innocuous comment made many years ago. It was about the fact that children grow up really quickly.

That’s it, that’s the insight. Rather underwhelming and not exactly mind bogglingly original is it?

But at the time she heard it, and it could have been from anyone of course, it struck a chord with her. She told me she went home with it resonating in her head. For whatever reason, she couldn’t stop thinking about it. And of course she would have certainly come to the same decision without or without my input.

Nevertheless she said she subsequently took some time, a few years I think, to raise her family and didn’t regret a second of it. She took nearly 20 years to find a moment to tell me and thank me for it.

I don’t even remember saying it. But, you know, you are verrrry welcome.

(Incidentally, now she’s back producing and has bounced back better than ever.)

Now, this isn’t meant to in any way to be a comment around women and work life balance or superwomen or any of that tricky area (that’s above my security clearance). Each of us should make our own decisions on that. What’s right for you etc etc

So why bring it up?

The point

Well, we often worry that our messages, our ads, our ideas aren’t differentiating or original. We worry that omnichannel and iterative design is diluting what we do. And the full horror of AI body copy has yet to be fully witnessed.

Maybe so. Maybe so.

But there is something poignant about the right message delivered at the right time to the right person. A message that if you are not in the target market, you might dismiss as obvious, banal even.

But making life-changing work can be as simple as that.

I was mentioning this observation to my wife and she nodded wisely, as she sometimes does, and reminded me about the time when we were umming and ahhing about whether to sell her mother’s flat in Torquay. Her late mother had had a truly life-changing stroke and was not her old self by any means and at the time was living nearby in a care home.

She told me that one phone call with an older cousin made up her mind. It was along the lines of ‘that was your parents dream home, by the sea’. She said ‘if it’s not your dream then you should sell it’.

What a lovely insight? delivered just when she needed to hear it most. But with such creativity, when she reminded me of the story I had to make a note of it.

If it’s not your dream.

Life-changing work can be huge Lions-winning projects of course.

Take one of last year’s winning films, American Cancer story that made the connection between cancer and school shootings. Two massive killers of children which was told in such a devastatingly impactful way, but could have started with a simple insight or what parents and school-age children have to go through.

Just take a little honesty and empathy. At least that’s the seed you need to start with.

You, dear reader, may have already changed someone’s life for the better and not even know it. Either through your work or a passing comment to a friend or even just by listening.

But in our neck of the media-woods, it’s in that small creative glade where the right words and the right delivery to the right person can make magic happen.

So happy concepting and Happy Christmas, dear reader.